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Post by KnightWarrior on Aug 27, 2015 21:56:35 GMT
Does people here collect analog media?
I do...I still need to find a Turntable to play my LP's ...I have a Sony Walkman for Cassettes
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db
Alis
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Post by db on Aug 28, 2015 7:26:04 GMT
Yep. About 200 or so albums and about the same of tapes leftover from my misspent youth. Unfortunately, I never play them anymore. I got my first CD player when I was about 20 and didn't look back. We were all very impressed with the low noise to high dynamic range ratio of digital back then. It wasn't until years later that people started to notice that, other than those characteristics, it just didn't sound as good as analog recordings. Turns out digital signals tend to emphasize odd harmonics (often heard as dissonant to our ears) whereas analog signals emphasize even harmonics which tend to make things sound richer and fuller to our ear.
I"m not getting rid of my albums though because I still hold out for the day I'll be able to afford a nice tube amp and speakers to play them through...and the extra space to set all that up in. Right now I just have a decent 2.1 speaker system hooked into my computer and ran through a graphic eq. My computer really has become my communication/entertainment hub and it works well enough for that but would probably sound like crap with records.
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Post by Transatlantic Foe on Aug 28, 2015 9:14:05 GMT
I like to pick up my favourite albums on vinyl where possible and also any bargains I come across. Only problem with vinyl is a lot of places don't know how to ship it - you often end up with battered sleeves from the record moving around in transit!
You can pick up a reasonable deck from places like Richer Sounds. You don't need to break the bank unless you're either DJing or a crazed audiophile with a ludicrous setup.
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lorf
Alis
Enduro Racer is the best game ever made for the SMS.
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Post by lorf on Aug 28, 2015 17:54:24 GMT
I have a small collection of vinyl's but I've only been into it since last Xmas. I bought a decent Pro-Ject setup last year with a good amp and speakers. Sounds incredible. I tend to stick to Now albums to discover good tunes then spin off into buying albums from that. Only have 50 so far.
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db
Alis
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Post by db on Aug 29, 2015 1:45:13 GMT
I like to pick up my favourite albums on vinyl where possible and also any bargains I come across. Only problem with vinyl is a lot of places don't know how to ship it - you often end up with battered sleeves from the record moving around in transit! You can pick up a reasonable deck from places like Richer Sounds. You don't need to break the bank unless you're either DJing or a crazed audiophile with a ludicrous setup. Hey! Don't knock crazed audiophiles with ludicrous setups! They usually have the best/most interesting stuff  I knew a guy who had a set of the wall speakers they wheel into Alex's hospital room at the end of A Clockwork Orange. That was neat to see an hear up close and personal. My point is, if we're talking about the difference between digital and analog then we're already having an audiophile discussion because most people either don't notice or care about the difference. So, if you want a truly analog audio experience start at the power source with tubes, when and if you can afford it. Sure a solid state setup will work just fine but if you notice a difference between digital and analog sound you will notice the difference between this too. It knocks it into an entirely different ballpark. One that makes much more musical sense. |
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Post by rupert on Aug 29, 2015 7:35:38 GMT
I like to pick up my favourite albums on vinyl where possible and also any bargains I come across. Only problem with vinyl is a lot of places don't know how to ship it - you often end up with battered sleeves from the record moving around in transit! You can pick up a reasonable deck from places like Richer Sounds. You don't need to break the bank unless you're either DJing or a crazed audiophile with a ludicrous setup. Hey! Don't knock crazed audiophiles with ludicrous setups! They usually have the best/most interesting stuff I knew a guy who had a set of the wall speakers they wheel into Alex's hospital room at the end of A Clockwork Orange. That was neat to see an hear up close and personal. My point is, if we're talking about the difference between digital and analog then we're already having an audiophile discussion because most people either don't notice or care about the difference. So, if you want a truly analog audio experience start at the power source with tubes, when and if you can afford it. Sure a solid state setup will work just fine but if you notice a difference between digital and analog sound you will notice the difference between this too. It knocks it into an entirely different ballpark. One that makes much more musical sense. That sounds amazing, I would love to see a pic of those speakers. A Clockwork Orange is one of my favourite films. I'm interested in audiophile stuff but I don't have any becasue I can't justify the cost right now, maybe in another 20 years when my priorities change. I have a slightly better than low end set up which I can appreciate. I also still have my walkman which I love but don't use anymore (panasonic rq-sx 75). I still love minidiscs which I do use. I don't own any vinyl. The boss I had about 15 years back had a fairly okay set up, somewhere between £5k - £10k worth. He had a couple of CD's that he also had on Vinyl and he set it up so he could flick between the CD and Vinyl. The Vinyl clearly sounded much richer and fuller. |
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Post by Transatlantic Foe on Aug 29, 2015 11:25:23 GMT
Not knocking the enthusiasts analogue vs digital wise. Wouldn't have a record player if I didn't appreciate the difference! It's just a little heavy on the wallet and electrics to have gaming setups AND fancy sound systems!
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db
Alis
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Post by db on Aug 29, 2015 17:06:36 GMT
Not knocking the enthusiasts analogue vs digital wise. Wouldn't have a record player if I didn't appreciate the difference! It's just a little heavy on the wallet and electrics to have gaming setups AND fancy sound systems! I wasn't really implying you that you were. I was just goofing around your statement to make my point. I'm also not trying to discourage people from getting into analog audio if they can't afford the best stuff. There are lots of great solid state components that won't break the bank. It's just that once you hear the difference there's really no denying the jump in quality. I have all my old record and even a record player to play them on. I'm just not highly motivated to set it all up because 1. I don't really have the space to do it right now and 2. I don't even have and can't afford the kind of components I'm recommending. By the time I can afford to go that way they'll probably have come up with some algorithm to make digital audio sound exactly like analog, eliminating the need altogether. I know Neil Young came up with a digital audio player a couple years ago that was supposed to do that but I don't think it sold very well. BTW, my walkman and mixtapes were an essential part of my high school years I had a discman for awhile after that but that thing skipped like crazy! |
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Post by flatapex on Aug 30, 2015 23:04:31 GMT
I would love one of those crazy set ups, I had a separates system in my teens and nearly upgraded it bit by bit, but the upgrades I wanted to do ran into thousands and my wages didn't. I replaced it with a nice mini system and when the laser went on the changer I put a DVD player through the aux, in the end I alternated between digital radio which was new in the UK and being able to play DVDs through my not exactly small speakers. Whole thing was quite cheap to set up and ahead of it's time
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db
Alis
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Post by db on Aug 31, 2015 1:04:41 GMT
Keeping it cheap, a decent graphic eq will always go a long way toward improving your sound. That way you can notch out problem areas and bump what's good or needed. I'm using a Technics SH-8055 in my computer chain right now. I can't remember exactly what I paid for it but I'm pretty sure it was less than $50.
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Post by ShadowAngel on Sept 8, 2015 16:58:16 GMT
I have a lot of Vinyls, around 280 albums and 180 Singles, a ton of decade old original releases from the 60's to 80's i got from my family and friends.
I like Vinyl for various reasons like the better packaging (Jethro Tulls Thick as a Brick is still a prime example) and a better sound. When i for example compare the Dire Straits Remaster CDs with the original Vinyl Pressings i have, the Vinyls sound so much better, not so sterile and loud with a nicer Bass.
Also some albums, in their original form, are only available on the original old Vinyl releases like Days of Future Passed from The Moody Blues, where the master mixdown tapes detoriated so badly that in 1978 a new version was mixed together which has a lot of laws (like at the end of Nights in White Satin the strings are completely out of sync with the rest of the music)
Nowadays i buy Vinyls of new albums whenever possible. The loudness War thankfully mostly attacks CD and MP3/Flac with Vinyls usually getting a better analogue mix that isn't brickwalled to make your ears bleed. Recent examples are XIV from Toto and The Book of Souls from Iron Maiden (where the CD features brickwalled loudness war on top of Kevin Shirley's infamously bad production, on the Vinyl you only have the latter of the two problems)
As for Cassettes: The only stuff i ever bought on Tape where our Hörspiele (radio drame is the english term for it, though they weren't made for radio but actually sold on Tapes) and i still have quite a few of them.
I also have a bunch of ancient Reel-to-Reel Tapes my father recorded in the 70's (mostly recordings of AFN, a radio station here in german for the US Soldiers, i think it doesn't exist anymore), it's actually quite funny to listen to them
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Post by englishinvader on Sept 13, 2015 11:22:44 GMT
I don't have a record player but I have a couple of Ghostbusters vinyls that I found in a charity shop. One is the soundtrack album for the first film and the other is the 12" single for On Our Own which Bobby Brown (Mr Whitney Houston) did for Ghostbusters II.
I had the opportunity to play them on my girlfriend's sound system and I'm starting to realise what I'm missing. I don't have the space or money for a full-blown Hi-Fi system but a portable record player with built-in speakers might be doable. The only question is whether there is much trade off in sound quality.
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db
Alis
Posts: 264
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Post by db on Sept 14, 2015 0:17:42 GMT
Well, you're not going to get much bass from the size of speaker that comes with a picnic player like that. If you're ok with that have at it.
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Post by ShadowAngel on Sept 16, 2015 21:44:03 GMT
I never even know there are vinyl players with built in speakers but the thought of that makes my skin crawl, i mean built-in speakers are usually low quality crap (take a lookt at your TV's) and are usually implemented as an after thought and you probably get one speaker that has to put out all frequencies from low to high and that will sound horrible. Even the usuall PC Audios style of two High/Mid Frequencies Speaker + a Subwoofer is crap (and if you need a Subwoofer your Speakers are complete crap anyway)
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db
Alis
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Post by db on Sept 17, 2015 7:38:43 GMT
I will debate that but only somewhat. I have a Klipsch 2.1 system that's THX rated and pretty decent. Having said that, it's really not even in the same ballpark as their more expensive shelf speakers. Bose are also nice, depending on the model.
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I knew a guy who had a set of the wall speakers they wheel into Alex's hospital room at the end of A Clockwork Orange. That was neat to see an hear up close and personal. My point is, if we're talking about the difference between digital and analog then we're already having an audiophile discussion because most people either don't notice or care about the difference. So, if you want a truly analog audio experience start at the power source with tubes, when and if you can afford it. Sure a solid state setup will work just fine but if you notice a difference between digital and analog sound you will notice the difference between this too. It knocks it into an entirely different ballpark. One that makes much more musical sense.
